WBEZ | slaveryhttp://www.wbez.org/tags/slavery
Latest from WBEZ Chicago Public RadioenGlobal Activism: 'Right To Be Free' helps enslaved children in Ghanahttp://www.wbez.org/series/global-activism/global-activism-right-be-free-helps-enslaved-children-ghana-110952
<img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://llnw.wbez.org/main-images/Ga-Rigght to be free.jpg" alt="" /><p><p><span id="docs-internal-guid-c3432a21-19bd-c013-080f-fe7081a2dc3d">We met Lori Dillon last February about her story to create a local branch of the NGO, <a href="http://righttobefree.org/">Right To Be Free</a>. She did it to support her friend, Ghanaian <a href="http://www.rightobefree.org/">Eric Peasah</a> &ldquo;who has dedicated his life to the rescue and rehabilitation of <a href="http://righttobefree.org/senyos-story.html">trafficked children</a>.&rdquo; For </span><a href="http://www.wbez.org/series/global-activism"><em>Global Activism</em></a>, Lori is back, with Eric, who came from Ghana to spread awareness about slavery and indentured servitude of children in his country.</p></p>Thu, 16 Oct 2014 08:57:00 -0500http://www.wbez.org/series/global-activism/global-activism-right-be-free-helps-enslaved-children-ghana-110952FIFA World Cup Final - Germany vs. Argentinahttp://www.wbez.org/programs/worldview/2014-07-10/fifa-world-cup-final-germany-vs-argentina-110473
<img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://llnw.wbez.org/main-images/AP139776218993.jpg" alt="" /><p><p>Our panel of soccer experts joins us to talk about the Final of the world&#39;s largest sporting event, the World Cup.</p><div class="storify"><iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="no" height="750" src="//storify.com/WBEZ/worldview-the-world-cup-final/embed?header=false&amp;border=false" width="100%"></iframe><script src="//storify.com/WBEZ/worldview-the-world-cup-final.js?header=false&border=false"></script><noscript>[<a href="//storify.com/WBEZ/worldview-the-world-cup-final" target="_blank">View the story "Worldview: FIFA World Cup Final - Germany vs. Argentina" on Storify</a>]</noscript></div></p>Thu, 10 Jul 2014 11:18:00 -0500http://www.wbez.org/programs/worldview/2014-07-10/fifa-world-cup-final-germany-vs-argentina-110473Real life Django: Love’s struggles on the Underground Railroad http://www.wbez.org/series/dynamic-range/real-life-django-love%E2%80%99s-struggles-underground-railroad-105560
<p><div class="image-insert-image "><img alt="" class="image-original_image" src="http://www.wbez.org/system/files/styles/original_image/llo/insert-images/django%20unchained%20AP%20small.jpg" style="height: 413px; width: 620px;" title="In Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Django Unchained,’ freed slave Django, played by Jamie Fox, struggles to reunite with his wife, Broomhilda, played by Kerry Washington. (AP/Sony Pictures DAPD)" /></div><p><iframe frameborder="no" height="166" scrolling="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F79402044&amp;color=ff6600&amp;auto_play=false&amp;show_artwork=false" width="100%"></iframe></p><p>There&rsquo;s a lot about Quentin Tarantino&rsquo;s Oscar-nominated film <em>Django Unchained</em> that seems, true to the director&rsquo;s well-known dramatic tendencies, somewhat larger than life: The huge personas of do-gooder bounty hunter King Schultz and sadistic slave owner Calvin Candie, for example, or the caricaturist&rsquo;s rendering of the conniving head house slave, Stephen.&nbsp;</p><p>But one crucial element of the film&rsquo;s plot does seem to be drawn from real life: Django&rsquo;s struggle to reunite with his wife, Broomhilda, echoes the lengths slaves would really go to in order to stay with or be reunited with their loved ones.</p><p>Author Betty DeRamus uncovered countless stories of slavery-era couples struggling to be together in the face of incredible adversity while researching her book, <em>Forbidden Fruit: Love Stories from the Underground Railroad</em>. &ldquo;Some of them are black couples, some of them are a free black person with a slave mate, and a few of them are interracial couples,&rdquo; DeRamus said. &ldquo;But they all have one thing in common: All went to extraordinary lengths to avoid being separated.&rdquo;</p><p>There was Joseph Antoine, for example, a free black man from Cuba who chose of life of indentured servitude in order to stay with his wife<strong>. &ldquo;</strong>In the process of working on that [story],&rdquo; DeRamus said, &ldquo;I discovered there were quite a few black Virginians who were willing to surrender freedom because they said the price of freedom was too high; if it meant leaving their families, they&rsquo;d rather not have it. And I had never heard that before.&rdquo;</p><p>Then there was Isaac Berry, the Missouri slave in love with his white neighbor&rsquo;s daughter, Lucy. Berry&rsquo;s owner wanted to sell him to pay off gambling debts, but Berry escaped across the Mississippi River into Illinois, then traveled to Indiana, Michigan, and finally across the Detroit River to Windsor, Canada. Lucy, meanwhile, took the money her family had saved for boarding school and instead bought a train ticket to Detroit, and waited there to meet her beau.</p><p>&ldquo;Remember, there were no cell phones, no Internet, no mass communication of any kind,&rdquo; DeRamus said of this incident, pointing out the extreme difficulty of setting up such a daring and far off rendezvous. &ldquo;One of the most extraordinary things about these couples is the faith that they had. . . that somehow things were going to work out.&rdquo;</p><p>Perhaps the most remarkable story in DeRamus&rsquo; collection is that of John Little, a slave who carried his unconscious wife to freedom on his whip-scarred back. You can hear DeRamus read her account of John Little and his wife in the audio above.</p><p><a href="http://www.wbez.org/series/dynamic-range"><em>Dynamic Range</em></a>&nbsp;<em>showcases hidden gems unearthed from</em>&nbsp;<a href="https://soundcloud.com/chicago-amplified/a-conversation-with-u-s"><em>Chicago Amplified&rsquo;s</em></a>&nbsp;<em>vast archive of public events and appears on weekends. Betty DeRamus spoke at an event presented by The Field Museum in February of 2006. Click</em>&nbsp;<a href="http://www.wbez.org/episode-segments/forbidden-fruit-love-stories-underground-railroad"><em>here</em></a><em>&nbsp;to hear the event in its entirety.</em></p><p><em>Follow Robin Amer on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/rsamer">@rsamer</a>.&nbsp;</em></p></p>Sat, 16 Feb 2013 08:00:00 -0600http://www.wbez.org/series/dynamic-range/real-life-django-love%E2%80%99s-struggles-underground-railroad-105560Documenting abuses in Zimbabwe’s Marange diamond fields http://www.wbez.org/episode-segments/2011-11-10/documenting-abuses-zimbabwe%E2%80%99s-marange-diamond-fields-93936
<img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://llnw.wbez.org/segment/photo/2011-November/2011-11-10/zimbabwe1.jpg" alt="" /><p><p>Discovered in 2006, the Marange diamond fields in Zimbabwe are considered the world’s biggest diamond find in a century. The discovery, like others in Africa, was followed by a spike in corruption, human rights abuses and forced labor.</p><p><a href="http://www.hrw.org/node/100833" target="_blank">Farai Maguwu</a> has worked extensively to <a href="http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2009/06/26/diamonds-rough-0" target="_blank">document</a> beatings, torture and killings of local villagers in Marange at the hands of soldiers with the Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front. He's the director of the <a href="http://www.crdzim.com/" target="_blank">Center for Research and Development</a> in eastern Zimbabwe. For his dangerous work, Human Rights Watch recently honored Farai with the prestigious <a href="http://www.hrw.org/news/2011/08/09/global-human-rights-watch-honors-7-activists" target="_blank">Alison Des Forges Award</a>.</p><p>Farai and Tiseke Kasambala, a senior researcher with <a href="http://www.hrw.org/" target="_blank">Human Rights Watch</a>, discuss their struggle against blood diamonds.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p></p>Thu, 10 Nov 2011 17:17:00 -0600http://www.wbez.org/episode-segments/2011-11-10/documenting-abuses-zimbabwe%E2%80%99s-marange-diamond-fields-93936In Mauritania, a group advocates for ex-slaves http://www.wbez.org/episode-segments/2011-10-27/mauritania-group-advocates-ex-slaves-93541
<img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://llnw.wbez.org/segment/photo/2011-October/2011-10-27/AP060626049765.jpg" alt="" /><p><p>The word ‘slavery’ conjures up images of 18th century slave ships and people locked in chains. But slavery is still alive and well in some parts of the world.</p><p>In the Maghreb nation of Mauritania, slaves comprise roughly 20% of the population.</p><p>Will Everett reports from the capital Nouakchott.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><em>This story originally aired on the </em><a href="http://www.worldvisionreport.org/" target="_blank">World Vision Report</a>. <em>We got it from the <a href="http://www.prx.org" target="_blank">Public Radio Exchange</a>.</em></p></p>Thu, 27 Oct 2011 16:26:00 -0500http://www.wbez.org/episode-segments/2011-10-27/mauritania-group-advocates-ex-slaves-93541'Slavery Footprint' asks, ‘How many slaves work for you?’http://www.wbez.org/episode-segments/2011-10-18/slavery-footprint-asks-%E2%80%98how-many-slaves-work-you%E2%80%99-93234
<img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://llnw.wbez.org/segment/photo/2011-October/2011-10-18/slavery.jpg" alt="" /><p><p>If you're reading these words on a computer, smart phone or laptop, it's likely that you have at least three slaves working for you somewhere down the global supply chain. That’s according to <a href="http://slaveryfootprint.org/" target="_blank">Slavery Footprint</a>, a new web campaign that’s working in collaboration with the <a href="http://www.state.gov/g/tip/" target="_blank">U.S. State Department</a> to bring attention to forced labor around the world.</p><p>With a sleekly designed, interactive survey, Slavery Footprint aims to personalize the issue of modern slavery by telling you how much your individual lifestyle depends on forced labor — and giving you steps to take to help end it.</p><p>Visit the website and you'll be asked a series of surprising questions, ranging from how many bathrooms are in your home to what kind of nuts you eat and what kind of cooking oil you use.</p><p>The survey then gives you detailed analysis of how many slaves are on the production end of your lifestyle.</p><p>According to Slavery Footprint, there are 27 million slaves in the world today - that is, economically exploited people who are forced to work without pay and cannot walk away from their jobs.</p><p>Justin Dillon, the creator and president of Slavery Footprint, told Jerome McDonnell, host of WBEZ's <em>Worldview</em>, that his ultimate goal is to spark a consumer-driven movement to create a more free world.</p></p>Tue, 18 Oct 2011 16:13:00 -0500http://www.wbez.org/episode-segments/2011-10-18/slavery-footprint-asks-%E2%80%98how-many-slaves-work-you%E2%80%99-93234Worldview 10.18.11http://www.wbez.org/episode/worldview-101811
<img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://llnw.wbez.org/episode/images/2011-october/2011-10-18/burma.jpg" alt="" /><p><p>Stunning recent developments may signal that the Burmese military junta, one of the world's most repressive governments, will consider reform. We speak with <a href="http://www.soros.org/initiatives/bpsai/about/bios/aungthwin" target="_blank">Maureen Aung-Thwin</a>, director of <a href="http://www.soros.org/" target="_blank">The Open Society’s</a> Burma Project, about new optimism surrounding the southeast Asian country. We also hear from <em><a href="http://www.rfa.org/english/" target="_blank">Radio Free Asia’s</a></em> Kyaw Kyaw Aung. He published an unprecedented interview with the powerful head of Burma’s Press Scrutiny and Registration Department. The official pledged to end press censorship. Lastly, if you’re reading this on a computer, smart phone or laptop, you likely have at least three slaves working for you. That's according to <a href="http://slaveryfootprint.org/" target="_blank">Slavery Footprint</a>, a new web-based campaign that personalizes the modern slavery issue by giving you an assessment of how much your lifestyle depends on forced labor—and steps you can take to help end it. We talk to the campaign’s creator, Justin Dillon.</p></p>Tue, 18 Oct 2011 14:40:00 -0500http://www.wbez.org/episode/worldview-101811Mural restoration heartens Puerto Ricanshttp://www.wbez.org/story/mural-restoration-heartens-puerto-ricans-92248
<img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://llnw.wbez.org/story/photo/2011-September/2011-09-21/mural-2_WBEZ_Chip-Mitchell.jpg" alt="" /><p><p>One of the country’s oldest outdoor murals covers a storefront on Chicago’s Northwest Side. People who care about the 40-year-old painting are finishing a facelift. The mural restoration is doing more than brightening up a gritty stretch of North Avenue. It’s got Puerto Ricans in the Humboldt Park neighborhood talking about their heritage.</p><p>MITCHELL: A celebration of the restoration included music with roots in Puerto Rican slave plantations.&nbsp;José López of the Puerto Rican Cultural Center recalled the artists who painted the mural in 1971.</p><p>LOPEZ: Young Puerto Ricans from the street — people who were marginalized — decided to give us a legacy for our historical memory.</p><p>MITCHELL: The mural covers the side of 2423 W. North Ave. and includes portraits of nine Puerto Ricans who struggled for abolition and the island’s independence from Spain and, later, the United States. Three of them are on crosses. Those three all served long U.S. prison terms in the mid-20th century. The artists, led by Mario Galán, named the mural “La Crucifixión de Don Pedro Albizu Campos” after a Puerto Rican Nationalist Party founder. They put him on the biggest cross. López said the mural has special meaning in a part of Chicago where many Puerto Ricans can no longer afford to live.</p><p>LOPEZ: Gentrification means, many times, the writing away of people’s history.</p><p>MITCHELL: Restoring the mural took a decade. Neighborhood leader Eduardo Arocho attributes that to a developer who owned a vacant lot in front of the work.</p><p>AROCHO: His plans were to develop a three-story condo unit. We tried negotiating with him for several months, even at one point offering him several lots in exchange. And he refused and he just started to build the wall, covering the mural intentionally. And so that’s when we grabbed our picket signs and started to protest.</p><p>MITCHELL: The city finally won control of the lot and helped turn it into a small park to keep the mural visible.</p><p>PITMAN WEBER: It’s remarkable that this mural has survived.</p><p>MITCHELL: John Pitman Weber is a professor at Elmhurst College in DuPage County. He has studied and created public art for more than four decades. And he provided consulting for this mural’s restoration, carried out by Humboldt Park artist John Vergara.</p><p>PITMAN WEBER: Its content is unique, not only in Chicago but nationally.</p><p>MITCHELL: And aesthetics? Pitman Weber calls the mural formal and stark.</p><p>PITMAN WEBER: Kind of Byzantine, in a way, quasi-naïve -- executed by some very, very young artists. The style possibly even adds clarity.</p><p>MITCHELL: Not all Puerto Ricans appreciate the artwork or the idea of the island breaking from the U.S. But when I ask the ones who walk by, most have strong attachments to the mural.</p><p>WOMAN 1: My mom used to go to St. Aloysius. My parents did and so...</p><p>MITCHELL: That’s a church right here.</p><p>WOMAN 1: It’s a church down the street. I used to go there when I was a little girl. And my mom would drive us to church and that’s how I knew we were getting close is when I’d see the mural almost every Sunday.</p><p>MAN 1: I see Don Pedro on the cross being crucified for what he believed in. Crucified the same way as Jesus!</p><p>WOMAN 2: I used to get up every morning and look at this mural.</p><p>MAN 2: I went to prison. I was 17 years old and I went to prison for 20 years. And, during those 20 years, when I used to think about home and I used to think about Humboldt Park, it was this mural that I used to think about.</p><p>MITCHELL: Why is that?</p><p>MAN 2: I remember when I was first looking at it, I think I was maybe 9 or 10 when I first noticed it, I didn’t know anything about Puerto Rican history. To me it was just a painting that was up there. I didn’t understand who was up there, what it was about. But when I went to prison I learned about my culture, I learned about who I was. I even got this guy on my arm. Two of these guys are on my arm.</p><p>MITCHELL: Tattoos.</p><p>MAN 2: Yeah, Pedro Albizu Campos on my right arm and I got Ramón Emeterio Betances on my left arm. And I think I can attribute that to this mural, man.</p><p>MITCHELL: The mural restoration will be complete with the addition of calligraphy this fall.</p></p>Wed, 21 Sep 2011 12:00:00 -0500http://www.wbez.org/story/mural-restoration-heartens-puerto-ricans-92248